Electronic Portable Air Conditioner

Can anyone tell me what are the main points to look for when buying a portable air conditioning unit.?

Public Comments

1. yeah don't buy one. use a hand fan, think of the envronment.
2. Check out the capacity of the room it should be in. I hired a unit which i put cold water in, that was good, but it was for a very samll office
3. SUITABILITY: the size of the space you're using it for, and the amount of treatment the air in there needs; for example, some dehumidifiers can't cope with high humidity levels; some chillers can't cope with concentrated sources of heat (such as a rooflight in a narrow hall creating a suntrap). MAINTENANCE: some will plug into a tap & a drain, so that they don't need emptying (condenser) or filling (humidifier). Others need to be maintained by hand, but most will have automatic sensors to tell you when filters etc. need changing. ENERGY USE: some units have a limited range of settings, so they need to be on a high setting when an intermediate one will do. Others use very little energy, but will only cope with small, steady workloads (see above). Some have a baffling range of settings & weekly programmes, so that you spend all your time adjusting them and waste a lot of energy getting the settings wrong. NOISE: as a rule, the powerful units will make more noise, and the more moderate ones are quieter. This can make a difference if they need to run while you're asleep. A versatile unit can run strongly when necessary, and revert to a quiet setting when this is more suitable. SIZE: a smaller unit will usually be less powerful, so that it's more suitable for a small space. However, it can be useful (and economical) to get several small units of a type you like (powerful for its size, quiet, easily maintained, light enough to move around & small enough to be unobtrusive). You can then choose whether to distribute them around a large space, use them separately in different rooms, or move several into a high-demand location.